THOMAS ORTHODONTICS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.
PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY. THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO US
OUR LEGAL DUTY
We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to give you this Notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this Notice while it is in effect. This Notice takes effect 07/15/2020, and will remain in effect until we replace it.
We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and terms of this Notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new term of our Notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this Notice and make the new Notice available upon request.
You may request a copy of our Notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this Notice, please contact us using the information at the end of this Notice.
USES AND DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION
We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For example:
Treatment: We may use or disclose your health information to a physician and other healthcare provider providing treatment to you.
Payment: We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you.
Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.
Your Authorization: In addition to our use of your health information for treatment, payment or healthcare operations, you may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this Notice.
To Your Family and Friends: We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patients Rights section of this Notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.
Persons Involved In Care: we may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including, identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition, or death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosure. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your healthcare. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of health information.Marketing Health-
Related Service: We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization.
Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.
Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.
WEBSITE TERMS OF USE
Thomas Orthodontics operates lutzorthodontist.com and may operate other websites. It is Thomas Orthodontics’ policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Thomas Orthodontics collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Thomas Orthodontics’ purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Thomas Orthodontics visitors use its website. From time to time, Thomas Orthodontics may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
Thomas Orthodontics also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on Thomas Orthodontics blogs/sites. Thomas Orthodontics only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described below, except that commenter IP addresses and email addresses are visible and disclosed to the administrators of the blog/site where the comment was left.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Thomas Orthodontics websites choose to interact with Thomas Orthodontics in ways that require Thomas Orthodontics to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Thomas Orthodontics gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up at Thomas Orthodontics to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Thomas Orthodontics are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Thomas Orthodontics collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Thomas Orthodontics. Thomas Orthodontics does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Aggregated Statistics
Thomas Orthodontics may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. Thomas Orthodontics may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Thomas Orthodontics does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Thomas Orthodontics discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Thomas Orthodontics’ behalf or to provide services available at Thomas Orthodontics websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Thomas Orthodontics websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Thomas Orthodontics will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Thomas Orthodontics discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Thomas Orthodontics believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Thomas Orthodontics, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of a Thomas Orthodontics website and have supplied your email address, Thomas Orthodontics may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Thomas Orthodontics and our products. If you send us a request (for example via email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. Thomas Orthodontics takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Thomas Orthodontics uses cookies to help Thomas Orthodontics identify and track visitors, their usage of Thomas Orthodontics website, and their website access preferences. Thomas Orthodontics visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Thomas Orthodontics’ websites, with the drawback that certain features of Thomas Orthodontics websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Business Transfers
If Thomas Orthodontics, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Thomas Orthodontics goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Thomas Orthodontics may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Thomas Orthodontics may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and at Thomas Orthodontics’ sole discretion. Thomas Orthodontics encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If you have a Thomas Orthodontics account, you might also receive an alert informing you of these changes. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.